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[AMPS] Fuses

To: <amps@contesting.com>
Subject: [AMPS] Fuses
From: measures@vc.net (Rich Measures)
Date: Mon, 22 Mar 1999 10:22:05 -0800


>
>Rich says:
>
>>A proper glitch resistor needs no fuse.   My guess is that most of the 
>>damage caused by peak fault current (delivered by the filter capacitor) 
>>takes place in roughly the first couple of milliseconds.  
>
>40swg  (0.0048 ins dia) wire fuses at about 2 amps. Suspended between
>suitable supports, it should go in well under 2millisecs, thus reducing the
>energy dissipated in the tube. 

?  What of the ensuing Cu vapour arc that exists as the wire separates?  
Metal-vapour arcs have a v drop of roughly 15v.   // A friend of mine 
performed an antenna experiment with a eight-foot wooden step ladder and 
two poles.  He wanted to find out:  What is the min. wire gauge that will 
safely handle 1500w of AØ on 10m in a half-wave dipole?.  He started with 
c. 30 ga. Cu and worked down.  With 40 gauge Cu wire, the enamel coating 
did not get warm enough to discolour.   

> Then it has to be replaced, and if the tube
>is a tetrode, some sort of protection is needed for the screen. 

?  This I doubt.  The mass of a typical screen is fairly substantial and 
it is typically not gold plated.  I had numerous flashovers in the 8171 
amp. and there was no screen damage.   However, if I screwed up during 
tuneup, the fast acting fuse in the primary of the screen supply opened.  

> A suitably
>big (physical size/power rating) glitch resistor will presumably hold on
>until the primary breaker comes out, but I just wonder if the strain is
>worth avoiding. At say 3kV, a 50 ohm glitch resistor can be expected to get
>60amps through: that's a fair amount of current for a tube, 

? Let's say that oil filled, paralleled,  low-ESR filter caps are used 
which have a net ESR of 2 ohms.  If the supply potential is c. 4kV, I 
should expect that the peak fault current would be a bit under 2000A.  I 
aim for using a glitch R that will keep the peak fault current below 
200A.  

>capacitor bank. I guess it's case of whether or not the inconvenience of
>changing the fuse

?  The sticky wicket seems to be in finding a fuse that will disrupt 2kA 
at 4kV, before 2mS, without striking a metal vapour arc.  .  

-  cheers, Peter


Rich...

R. L. Measures, 805-386-3734, AG6K, www.vcnet.com/measures  


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